


The Beast

by Liza_Taylor



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Monster Byleth, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 03:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21403168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liza_Taylor/pseuds/Liza_Taylor
Summary: Claude didn't put much stock in the rumors of a beast living in the abandoned castle deep in the forest...Inspired by  Spectacle-P's "The Beast" by Miku Hatsune.ClaudeXf!Byleth. One-shot.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	The Beast

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to "The Beast" recently and thought how well it would fit with Claude/Byleth.
> 
> Debated on releasing this one since I'm not 100% happy with it but I thought, why not? I don't have much motivation to fix it up so sorry if it isn't that great.

Deep in the woods was a castle. An old thing made from stone, it was far away from the rest of civilization. Claude had seen from the air a few times as he rode around on his wyvern.

There were many rumors and legends of the castle. Most of them involving a beast living deep within its midst that would swallow anyone that would enter its domain.

Claude didn’t think he would ever have a chance to see if the stories were true but one day when he was flying over the woods, a storm had suddenly come on. A vicious storm with pouring rain and howling winds, lighting crackling. It would be foolish to attempt to ride through it so he took his wyvern down into the castle, through a hole in the stone roof.

Just in time too as Claude hopped off his beast and pulled it under the overhang, the storm finally came upon them, the thunder shaking the air, the pouring rain slamming into the stones. The wyvern shifted in place nervously and Claude patted her flank.

“It’s okay, it’s just a storm. We’re just going to wait it out before flying back home. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or two Judith.” His teacher would murder him if she found out he named his wyvern after her but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her right?

He looked around the area they had landed in. It seemed to be the remnants of a bedroom. Nature seemed to be already starting to reclaim the space, the wooden posts of the bed rotting, and flowers and moss peeked up through the cracks in the stonework. An open archway led deeper into the castle.

Claude got comfortable next to Judith. The old drafty castle didn’t really bother him. He wasn’t one to believe in ghosts, humans were scary enough as it was.

Judith growled and shifted back and forth in place.

He frowned and patted her flank. “What’s wrong girl? It’s not like you haven’t weathered a storm before.” Oddly enough, her attention was not directed towards the opening in the ceiling and the rain pouring down but behind him, towards the open archway.

He turned slowly and startled.

There was something standing in the doorway, in the darkness. A flash of lighting struck nearby, and the darkness lit up for a brief moment. A woman with pair of horns coming out of the top of her head.

Claude cursed, Failnaught was strapped to the other side of Judith. He didn’t think he was going to need it close by in an abandoned castle.

She stepped in the room. Claude tensed, ready to vault over Judith to get to his bow. The wyvern was growling under her breath, a warning.

The woman(if she could even be called that) seemed to ignore them as she walked into the room and past them, towards the opening in the roof. With seemingly no qualms, she stepped into the pouring rain and looked up to the sky, her eyes closed.

Claude used the moment to really examine her. Besides the horns, a long tail came out of her lower back, almost dragon-like in appearance. Long light green hair trailed down her back, ending at her knees, her dress was tattered and worn, obviously seen way better days. What shocked Claude was how beautiful she was. Unnaturally so even. He couldn’t put a finger on what exactly made her so unearthly. It just seemed to be her overall demeanor, the way she held herself, the delicate features of her face that seemed to counteract against the black horns and white-scaled tail.

He walked around Judith and grabbed Failnaught and his quiver of arrows. He kept the weapon pointed to the ground as he walked back around and regarded the woman. 

By this point the rain was starting to let up and she opened her eyes and lowered her head. She turned and walked under the overhang.

“Hang on,” Claude called out as she walked past them without a look back.

Her head turned slightly in his direction and she slowed to a stop.

So she wasn’t a ghost.

“Do you live out here? It’s a bit drafty.” He gave her a playful smile.

No response. Instead she just turned and walked out of the room.

He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and he looked back to see Judith had his shirt in her mouth. He turned and stroked her muzzle. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to follow her girl.” He looked at the archway. Despite the beauty, her eyes seemed weighed with loneliness.

That made him curious. Why did a being like her look like that? And why was she living in an abandoned castle like this?

***

He had come again today.

Byleth ignored him as she stepped out into the patch of sunlight that came in through the hole in the roof of the bedroom. How many days had it been? She always had trouble keeping track of the days anymore, she had been alive for a long time after all. Maybe it was ten? Yes, probably ten.

“You really do like standing out there for a bit of time every day. Is this the only time of day you do it? I wonder what else you do out here?”

Like always he never stopped talking. Always about the weather or he would compliment her hair or ask her about the animals that lived in the forest. He sat on a piece of stone, the wyvern lying down behind him. He gave her a wide smile as she glanced in his direction.

“I knew you could understand me. That’s great because I would look real stupid talking to myself.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

She opened her mouth and her voice came out croaked and cracking. “Why?” A voice that had not been used in so long.

His green eyes widen. “Oh, you can talk. Your voice doesn’t sound too good though.” He grabbed a waterskin off his belt and held it out to her. “Here you go.”

She looked at the waterskin and then at him.

He got up and took a step towards her. The wyvern behind him shifted in place and her eyes glared at Byleth in warning.

Byleth took a step towards him and took the waterskin. It took her a moment to remember how to open it and she tipped her head back and poured some water down her throat.

“Good?” he asked.

“Good.” Her voice was still coarse, but it didn’t sound as bad as before. She held out the waterskin and he took it back.

“I’m glad to know you can talk. There’s so much I want to ask you about the forest.” He chuckled. “And I will admit, I am curious about you.” He put away the waterskin and held out a hand. “You mind talking to me about it for a while?”

“Talking?”

He winced. “Well maybe we should take it slow. Your voice still doesn’t sound so good.”

She turned away and headed for the archway. “Fine.”

***

“So, if you don’t mind me asking…” Claude gestured to his head. “is there a story about the horns and tail?”

Sitting across from him, also on a broken piece of rubble was Byleth. She sat cross-legged, her tail wrapped over her legs. It had taken almost two years to get this far. Every chance he got, he came to the castle to visit and speak to her. At first she only spoke in one or two words, her voice grating with every sound. As time went on, she increased to three and then to four. 

Now she spoke in full sentences, her words articulate. It surprised him how gentle she seemed to be despite her appearance. She lived her life in the castle, most of her days spent either wandering the halls or sitting just outside of it watching the forest. She forged in the forest for food but based on what he was able to gather from her context clues, she did not have to eat very often. In return for the info, despite her not asking for it, he told her about Almyra, the boring meetings, his training sessions with Nadar and even stories of Judith(both the wyvern and the person). She may not have asked questions, but he saw how she leaned forward and her eyes widen when he got to a suspenseful part and how she cracked a small smile whenever he said something funny.

“My horns and tail?” She reached up and touched her horns before setting her hand back in her lap. “I cast a spell on myself to turn myself into a beast.”

“You did what?” He looked at her blankly. “Why? Why would you do something like that? Wait, if you cast a spell…what were you before?”

Byleth gestured to him. “Like you. Human.”

“Human?” He thought it over. “Then what happened? Why did you do this?”

She looked away from him. “To keep myself from getting hurt,” she said simply. She stood. “The sun is setting, it is almost time for you to go.”

“Yeah.” Claude stood and stretched. He could already hear a lecture coming from his parents. He should be spending way less time in the forest and more time focusing on ruling Almyra. “Byleth, I just wanted to let you know, I won’t be able to come by as often anymore. I’ll try to come by at least once a month.”

“Oh…alright then.”

He walked over and held her hands. She startled and looked up at him in surprise. Her hands were cold and he couldn’t help but wrap his hands tighter around hers to pour some of his warmth into her. “I will see you as much as I can alright? I promise you that.”

“I understand that you are busy. You do not need to do so much for me.” She pulled her hands out of his grasp.

Claude grimaced and he tried to not show the hurt on his face. “I don’t want you to think I’ve abandoned you.”

“Do what you wish.”

Judith was already waiting by the way out as Claude walked over to her. Before he climbed onto her, he turned back to her. “I mean it Byleth, I’ll be back soon.”

***

Byleth heard a thud from upstairs. A small smile crossed her face as she hurried up the steps and passed through the archway. There he was, Claude, leaning against a wall.

“Where’s your wyvern?” she asked, realizing the creature was nowhere in sight. Judith had passed on years ago and Claude brought a different wyvern every time.

“Sent him back, I don’t think I’ll make it home.”

Byleth frowned as she sat next to him on her knees. He groaned and his bones seemed to pop as he laid down with his head resting in her lap. It was something he asked her to do, was it thirty years ago at this point? It felt odd to her but he seemed to enjoy it, so she humored him.

“What do you mean you’re not going to make it home?”

He lifted a shaky, wrinkly hand and touched the side of her face. “It’s been many years Byleth. I’ve known you for so long now.”

Byleth really looked at him. He was shorter than she remembered, his skin wrinkled, his hair white. His hands were no longer sure, his eyes not as piercing as before.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “It wasn’t a normal romance by any means but maybe we’ll meet again in another time and another place. Maybe then I could actually see a little more of your heart.”

“Claude…what…” His hand slipped from her face and fell to the ground, his eyes closing and the breath leaving his body.

She waited.

She didn’t know how long she waited for him to take another breath. The sky changed from dark to light and back to dark again.

He did not wake. Breath did not fill his lungs again.

“Claude…” A raindrop fell onto his cheek. Odd. They were under the overhang.

Her vision blurred and she realized the rain-no tears were coming from her own eyes. She put her hands over her mouth as sobs poured out of her. And in that moment, she remembered the real reason why she chose to use the spell so long ago. It wasn’t for to protect herself from getting hurt, it was to help her find eternal love.

She screamed and sobbed. She should have let him in. That warm smile and warm hands. She should have let him take her out of the castle, to see the world. She should have gone into his arms when he opened them up to her for a hug. She should have talked to him more, perhaps she should have given him the love he had gladly given to her.

Once the sadness had finally poured out of her, all that was left was a small shred of warmth in her stomach, the remnant of the love he had shown her. Carefully she moved her legs out from under his head before carefully picking him up. He had mentioned countless times in the past how she was overly strong for someone of her stature.

She walked through the castle that had been her prison for so long and out to the forest beyond. “I can’t take you with me Claude but you always said how much you liked the forest.”

It took a long time digging through the earth with her bare hands. Of course, how long it took didn’t matter, she had all the time in the world after all. Once the hole was big enough, she picked up Claude’s limp body and set him in the grave. Before she climbed out, after a moment hesitation, she reached down and kissed his forehead. He had did it once to her a long time ago and apologized profusely afterwards when she roared at him for doing something so unnecessary.

It felt like it took longer to bury him than it did to make the hole. Once he was buried, she looked to the rising sun. Claude had talked fondly of the world beyond and the beauties within it. He had mentioned how he wanted her to see it as well and perhaps with him.

She took one step and then another towards the sunrise and then she was running. Running through the forest, away from the castle that had been her loneliness and solitude. She would see the world in his place. And perhaps, maybe one day, may it be a thousand years or a millennia, maybe one day they could meet again and possibly be together forever.


End file.
